Screening and Discussion of “The Cost of Inheritance”
Emmy nominee and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Yoruba Richen shares and discusses her one-hour documentary, “The Cost of Inheritance,” which follows the long journey of individuals and communities seeking to make reparations a reality on the personal, local, and national levels.
The decades-long debate surrounding reparations is fraught, mired in racial tension and the semantics of restorative justice. While the national conversation remains stalled due to legislative inaction, communities across the country examine their histories and take it upon themselves to arrange their own form of reparations. This detailed investigation of restitution presents accounts of everyday people confronting the past and exploring the possibilities of wealth transfer.
Combining personal stories, archival footage, scholarly analyses, and the viewpoints of a range of Americans, the hour-long film is a powerful reminder of our shared histories and intertwined legacies. The stories told provide a necessary pathway to engaging in honest conversation about our past, and move forward towards racial justice.
Following the film, CBH Chief Historian Dominique Jean-Louis leads a discussion with Richen and public historian Debbie-Ann Paige about the challenge of tracing family genealogies of descendants of the enslaved, and the role genealogy plays towards the end goal of repair. The conversation ties the film to CBH’s current exhibition, Trace/s which in part celebrates the family genealogy researchers who dedicate themselves to untangling the past, honoring ancestors, building community, and enriching our collective understanding of the present.
This program is presented in connection with the exhibition "Trace/s: Family History Research and the Legacy of Slavery in Brooklyn."
Participants
Yoruba Richen is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose work has been featured on multiple outlets, including Netflix, MSNBC, FX/Hulu, HBO, and PBS. Her film The Rebellious Life of Mrs Rosa Parks premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and won a Peabody Award. Other recent work includes the Emmy-nominated films American Reckoning (Frontline), How It Feels to Be Free (American Masters), The Sit In: Harry Belafonte Hosts the Tonight Show (Peacock), and Green Book: Guide to Freedom (Smithsonian Channel).
She directed an episode of the award-winning series Black and Missing for HBO and High on the Hog for Netflix. Her film, The Killing of Breonna Taylor won an NAACP Image Award and is streaming on HULU. Her previous films, The New Black and Promised Land won multiple festival awards before airing on PBS’s Independent Lens and P.O.V.
Yoruba is a past Guggenheim and Fulbright fellow and she won the Creative Promise Award at Tribeca All Access. She was a Sundance Producers Fellow and Women’s Fellow and is a recipient of the Chicken & Egg Breakthrough Filmmaker’s Award. Yoruba is the founding director of the Documentary Program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. She founded Promise Land Films, which focuses on producing nuanced, compelling documentary films that illuminate issues of race, space, and power.
Debbie-Ann Paige is a public historian specializing in local African American history, a co-president and founding member of the Richard B. Dickenson Staten Island Chapter of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS) and professional genealogist. She is an adjunct lecturer at the College of Staten Island and community history strategist that leads engaging public history forums exploring the historical aspects of race and race relations.
She actively serves on various committees and projects, such as the strategic planning and program committees of AAHGS, the New York and New Jersey Middle Passage Port Markers Project steering committee, and the Narrative Change Subcommittee of the New Yorkers 4 Reparations Coalition. Additionally, she is a member of the Collections Committee for both the Staten Island Museum and Historic Richmondtown.
Debbie-Ann has worked on numerous local history projects including Taking Care: The Black Angels of Sea View Hospital, the Access, Collaboration and Equity in Genealogy (ACEGen) initiative, Women of the Nation Arise!, and Farm to City, with the Staten Island Museum; In Pursuit of Freedom with the Brooklyn Historical Society; and she established the “Louis Napoleon House” as a site with the National Park Service Underground Railroad Network to freedom on behalf of the Sandy Ground Historical Society. She is the creator of the Staten Island African American Heritage Tour App, which is a digital trail of people and places significant to Black history on Staten Island.
Debbie-Ann has showcased her skills as a historical interpreter on various acclaimed television programs such as Secrets of New York, WITF Toward Racial Justice: Tracing Family History, and PBS shows like Metrofocus: Juneteenth and Treasures of New York: Snug Harbor. Additionally, she has been featured as a guest on popular podcasts including Speak on It, Realty Check, Site Unseen, Talk Ain’t Cheap, and All Things Considered.
Debbie-Ann holds a BS in Business Studies from Southern New Hampshire University, and both a BA and MA in History from the College of Staten Island, CUNY. She is currently working towards a Doctor of Education in Community-Based Leadership at the College of Staten Island.
Dominique Jean-Louis, Ph.D is the Chief Historian of the Center for Brooklyn History at the Brooklyn Public Library. Previously, she held the position of Associate Curator of History Exhibitions at New-York Historical Society, where she co-curated Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow (2018), Our Composite Nation: Frederick Douglass' America (2022), and is the co-curator of Black Dolls (2022). She is a former Mellon Predoctoral Fellow in Museum Education at the Museum of the City of New York. She received her B.A. in Comparative Ethnic Studies from Columbia University, and her Ph.D in US History from New York University, with her doctoral research focusing on race, education, and immigration in post-Civil Rights Era Brooklyn. Dominique regularly writes and lectures on Blackness in America, schools and education, and New York City history. Her newest exhibit for the Center for Brooklyn History, Trace/s: Family History Research and the Legacy of Slavery in Brooklyn, is on view through August 30.
